The internal elements of the cartridge of this invention and associated external configuration are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/023,459; filed Feb. 26, 1993, by Baker et al., assigned to the same assignee to which this application is assigned.
Typically, a replaceable toner cartridge is driven from a single gear or rotatable face coupling. U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,817 to Ogiri et al is illustrative of such a cartridge having systems driven from a gear. U.S. Pat. No. 5,023,660 to Ebata et al is illustrative of such a cartridge having systems driven by a face coupling.
With single driven systems, such a cartridge will have a constant ratio of movement with respect to all of the moving elements. Printers which differ by the ratio of movement of the photoconductor and the developer roller require different cartridges or, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,126,800 to Shishido et al, different moving elements within the same cartridge, which may not be practical or efficient.
Also, when all elements are driven from the same source, power from the source must be large enough to service all the elements and that power must be translated through gears or other couplings to all of the elements. Couplings such as gears within the cartridge introduce disruptions such that the elements do not all move simultaneously at the theoretical speed, but instead exhibit jitter and some discontinuous actions.
This invention employs a cartridge in which the developing system is independently driven from the imaging device and the photoconductor roller is independently driven from the imaging device. Changing the speed ratio very effectively controls the amount of toner developed on the latent electrostatic image on the photoconductor drum.